Supporters say the reason to get excited about TransformSC is the grassroots support it has generated since it was launched in May as a way to transform South Carolina by transforming the way children are taught.

In Mismatches in Race to the Top Limit Educational Improvement: Lack of Time, Resources, and Tools to Address Opportunity Gaps Puts Lofty State Goals Out of Reach, Weiss takes a comprehensive look at the Obama administration’s signature education initiative, and finds a few notable successes but many more shortcomings.

9/20/2013

Fourteen Massachusetts schools designated "underperforming" in 2010 have met three-year turnaround goals and will shed their Level 4 status, but four turnaround schools could fall into state receivership, education officials said.

The first Minneapolis mayoral debate, held recently, focused on schools. This is remarkable, because the mayor has no formal responsibility over Minneapolis Public Schools. However, with a Star Tribune poll earlier this month finding that public education tops the list of Minneapolis residents polled, the six participating candidates were quick to fill that void with advocacy.

Race to the Top has done little to help most states close achievement gaps, and may have exacerbated them, according to a new report by Elaine Weiss, National Coordinator of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education.

9/17/2013

A new proposal in the Michigan House of Representatives would set aside $10 million in state funds to help schools transition to a "year-round" calendar where students do not have the traditional lengthy summer break.

9/12/2013

Diane Ravitch made her name in the 1970s as a historian chronicling the role of public schools in American social mobility. In the 1990s, she went to work in the Bush administration’s Education Department, where she pushed for a rejection of 1960s relativism and a return to basics and standards.

Without effective policy, any principal could try any new grading experiment, and have all students in a school receiving grades from the “pilot” without board knowledge or approval, or even superintendent knowledge or approval.

None of these so-called reforms has moved the needle in a positive direction. It’s outrageous that outside lobbyists peddle this long-expired brand of education to communities with the message that it will be the elixir for what ails their public schools.

9/11/2013

Nearly a year after voters trounced Tom Luna’s Students Come First proposals in a referendum, the state schools superintendent acknowledged he did not do enough to make the plan transparent or to involve Idahoans.

9/9/2013

It is no secret today that U.S. public schools are slipping quickly behind other developed nations in every subject. This problem is not one of funding, it is a problem of politics in public education.